Apple Geek Mocks up Fourth-Generation iPhone

Just as the iPad is about to hit stores, the tech community is already buzzing with excitement about Apple’s next big release: the fourth-generation iPhone, rumored for a summer announcement.

In the illustration above, Graham Bower of MacPredictions.com has already produced a mockup of an imaginary fourth-generation iPhone with changes he’d like to see in the next upgrade. His illustration portrays an iPhone with a front-face camera and an aluminum unibody enclosure matching the aesthetic of Apple’s MacBook Pros and upcoming iPad.

Perhaps Apple’s next iPhone could look something like Bower’s illustration. The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported that Apple was preparing to release a new iPhone this summer (which we’ve all come to expect, since Apple has released each of its iPhones in summers of years past).

In response to WSJ‘s report, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, who has accurately leaked some Apple rumors in the past, listed features he’s heard will appear in the next iPhone: an A4-family CPU system-on-a-chip, a 960-by-640 resolution display, a second front-facing camera and third-party multitasking in iPhone OS 4.